


how long has it been?

by Randy_sensei



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, My First Work in This Fandom, POV Second Person, Short n sweet, Sick Character, Sickfic, but yeah, i guess we can find out, is it existential angst if its being angsty about the future?, no beta we die like men, probably, sorta fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 12:44:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16429655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Randy_sensei/pseuds/Randy_sensei
Summary: Clementine does some thinking, and doesn't like where it goes.





	how long has it been?

The cold winter’s storm blows through the trees, the brush and through the dirt, then blows through you like a child would do with the candles on a birthday cake.

 

Difference being there is no wish.

You hug the parka tighter to your body and pull the rim of the old, ragged beanie further down your forehead. Any lower and you won’t be able to see in front of you.

Through the trees, you spot it. Your home for the past few… couple… hundreds or maybe thousands of days. It's hard to tell at this point. You weren’t keeping count, and Aasim, the only one that did, stopped a… long while ago.

The gate of the compound opens, and you walk in, hurrying towards the inside, out of the cold, cold storm wind. The frost hurts your eyes, so you shut them.

Stumbling inside, you fall to your knees, ragged breath let loose. The musty air clings to the inside of your throat, and it's welcoming. Surprisingly.

You cough as the same parka you clung onto for dear life a moment ago suddenly feels very constricting. Your vision blurs and  

“Clem,” a voice asks, and the nudging continues.

You snap out of your thoughts and your fingers and feet and legs and arms are all cold again, but the feeling returns to them, slowly.

“--Huh, what?”

A blonde girl waves a hand in front of your face as she helps you up by the arm. “Anyone home in there? Are you alright, Clem?”

Swallowing, you nod, “Yeah, peachy.” As the words leave your mouth, a pain ricochets up from your stomach and into your throat as a cough, preventing the attempt at standing up, buckling your leg under you.

“Yeah, you look like the definition of it,” the girl chimes sarcastically. She’s quickly under your arm, helping you stand. You start slowly further towards the inside. Through the open set of doors you see a couch with your name on it.

“Har har, very funny.”

 

You let her help you.

 

* * *

 

The tip of your nose is red. There’s two blankets on top of you, and it barely feels like it's enough.

 

You groan, head up at the dirty ceiling you’ve gotten so used to.

“Come on, Vi, do I seriously have to stay in bed,” you ask, dragging out the question, and Violet looks at you. You can _feel_ the daggers pinning you down to the bed. You swallow hard.

“I hope that wasn’t a question you just asked, Clem. You’re _sick._ You are staying here until you’re not, you got it?”

After a pause, you sniffle, then nod. “Yeah. Okay.”

She sits at your feet, on the side of your bed, and your eyes connect as she double checks everything. Her smile is warm, and her cheeks are slow to rise. Her smile is just as contagious as it is loving.

“Thanks,” you say, in a small voice. It comes out weaker and rough, due to your throat being in poor condition by now. You cough to point it out and taste a slight hint of blood in the back of your throat, and choose to ignore it.  

Violet rubs at your leg through the blanket, “Don’t mention it. Seriously. Just get better.”

You both smile at that.

“Did you manage to find anything,” Violet asks, after a comfortable pause.

You shrug, “Only what’s in my bag. It’s not much, but if were careful it could last us a little bit.”

Violet nods, and the pause continues. “I should have gone with you.”

Waving the thought off, you continue after a sneeze, “Oh please, I’m perfectly fine. There's nothing for you to worry about.”

Another sneeze accentuates exactly _how fine_ you are. That earns a giggle from Violet, and your chest and face are warmer at the sound, "She says, and gives me a reason to worry." 

Violet sighs deeply, and her face turns sullen. “Seriously. I don’t wanna lose you. AJ doesn’t want to lose you. No one here wants to lose you.”

The heel of your palm rubs at your eye, and you exhale, letting the breath you didn't know you were holding go. Truth be told, you yourself weren’t completely sure in what way to explain the reason you went alone.

“I- I’m sorry, Vi… It's just that I’ve been thinking--”

“--That never leads to anything good.” Violet interjects, with a small voice and a smile just as small.

“Oh shut up,” you reply, giving her a backhanded slap on the arm, as she responds with low and warm giggles.  “But I’ve just been… trapped in my own head, I guess, and wanted to go somewhere where I was completely alone, and… think things through.”

Violet’s face grows serious as she listens. The wind continues to howl outside, and the nearby candles lit to keep the place illuminated flicker.

“May I ask what about?” she finally asks, after a pause filled with staring at the candles from before. When she looks back at you, your eyes connect, and there’s that curve of her eyebrows that you know only shows its face when she’s nervous.

Honestly, it's adorable, but it probably means she’s tearing herself up on the inside.

“About… well, everything. Time, mostly. And how much of it passed since…”

“Since normal life?”

You nod after a pause, and the room turns quiet again, save for the howling of the wind outside. After a moment, you feel that same wind howl through you, metaphorically.

Moving your legs up to your chest is a slow process, and hope Violet doesn’t think anything of it. You hug your legs close and bury your face in between.

“I miss Lee the most,” comes out of you, unexpectedly. Well, the concept of missing Lee isn’t the surprising part, rather the moment of confessing this. You’ve told stories of Lee to both AJ and Vi, who sat and listened to your rambling, and stories.

Rambling and stories that ended in tears, most times, and warm embraces.

“It’s been so long. Too long,” Violet says, to which you raise your head. She says it in a voice just as small, or smaller than yours, and her gaze is pointed downwards.

“I remember wishing things went back to normal. I don’t remember when I stopped wishing.”

“Wishes stopped coming true around the time everything fell apart.”

Sharing another glance is the precursor to the two of you connecting in a hug.

The two of you are melted there by the crushing weight of what the future holds. You’re worried Vi might get sick but… that part doesn’t matter much right now.

 

You just hope you’ll all be okay. Not wish, though. Wishes don’t exist any more.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear any criticism (and mistakes I've probably made) you might have!


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